Materials and Method: Two hundred fifty five patients aged over 60 years were enrolled in the study. The elderly filled the questionnaire about FP and falling. The FMDs in the study included hallux valgus (HV), hammer toe (HT), mallet toe (MT), claw toe (CT), overlapping toe (OT), pes cavus (PC), pes planus (PP), metatarsalgia (MA) and plantar fasciitis (PF). Participants' risk of falling was assessed using The Performance-Oriented-Mobility-Assessment and the health status was measured using The Short-Form (SF)-36.
Results: A total of 255 patients with a mean age of 67.90±6.15 were examined; 175(69%) were female and 78 (31%) were male. Ninety-seven (38%) of the subjects reported FP and 103 (43.8%) patients were diagnosed as having FMDs. The most common FMD was HV (18.4%), followed by PF (15.9%), PP (13.3%), MA (12.9%), HT (7.8%), MT (4.3%), OT (3.5%), CT (1.6%) and PC (1.9%). FP, HV, PP, MA, PF, CT and OT were associated with risk of falling (p<0.05). There was a relationship between falls and the presence of FMD (p<0.01) and foot pain (p<0.01). PCSs of the patients with FP were lower than that of those without FP (p<0.05)
Conclusion: FMDs and FP should be considered as risk factors for falling in the elderly.
Keywords : Falls; Postural balance; Foot deformities; Aged